SUTCLIFFE RECEIVES SPORTSMAN OF YEAR TROPHY AT DUNEDIN

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 June 1950, Page 4

SUTCLIFFE RECEIVES SPORTSMAN OF YEAR TROPHY AT DUNEDIN

DUNEDIN, Last Night (PA).—The New Zealand “Sportsman’s” trophy for the sportsman of the year was presented to Mr. Bert Sutcliffe, Otago and New Zealand representative cricketer this evening at a function, which was attended by one of the most representative gatherings of sportsmen held in Dunedin for many years.

Mr. J. F. Fairbairn, editor of the New Zealand “Sportsman,” the Mayor, Sir Donald Cameron, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Bodkin), the president of the Otago Council of Sports (Mr. C. J. L. White), the president of the New Zealand Cricket Council (Mr. D. A. Solomon), the president of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association (Mr. J. W. Hallen) and representatives of practically every sporting organisation in Dunedin were present. In making the presentation of the handsome trophy Mr. Bodkin said that in days to come the New Zealand “Sportsman’s” trophy would be the most contested trophy in the Dominion. The journal the New Zealand “Sportsman” had a very fine conception of things when it called upon a panel of 16 sports editors from Auckland to Invercargill to make the award, and they were unquestionably the right persons to decide who should be regarded as the outstanding sportsman of the Dominion. The decision had been almost unanimous. Mr. Bodkin said that by his performances Sutcliffe had made for himself a very definite place in the history of the Dominion. It was given to only a few men to establish a Dominion record and Mr. Sutcliffe had broken not one, but many records. “I feel very proud indeed to be selected as the sportsman of the year, said Mr. Sutcliffe in the course of a characteristically modest speech. He added that ig succeed in spoit one had to have a certain measure of luck. He expressed the hope that, the trophy wou/l go tne rounds of the various sports.